A blog about the Big Four of the English Premier League

Arsenal Gunned Down.

BFZ Update: For those of you waiting for Maddy’s version of the events, we regret to inform that he slammed his foot into his bedpost after United’s third goal, and is now feeling something in his left metatarsal. In all likelihood, he will be out for the rest of the season a la Van Persie.

The match wasn’t over yet as I began this. In pure statistical terms on the clock that is. For all practical purposes, the match was over when Ji Sun Park scored our third 10 minutes into the second half – his first goal after the one he scored in the Champions League semifinal dismantling of these boys that we did last season. It was not quite men against boys this time, Arsenal have grown up since then. But it still remains a match of highly precision-based football, and highly effective football. And effective football is when you put away 3 of the 5 chances you get, and not keep trying to put the thread through the eye of the needle.

It’s the first time in around 3 seasons that Arsenal have still been in the title race till so late into January. Our games against Arsenal are always big but for it to happen when we are separated by 1 point has been a rarity. Hence making this match much bigger than usual even. With the Captain Chelshit scoring both on and off the field to keep them firmly entrenched at the top of the table, this game had the potential to decide who would be chasing them till the end of the season. And decide that it did, emphatically.

Joga Bonito

There’s something about Arsenal and their stubborn refusal to play buckle-down-and-score football in deference to the beautiful game. That might have something to do with the fact their front three’s combined height will be that of John Isner, one of Murray’s opponents on his way to the humiliation against Federer in the finals earlier today. That ended in 3 sets, this ended at the 3rd goal. It needn’t have been all 3 for United at that point. Arsenal, as always, had the ball in the final 3rd. They had quick feet and excellent shooters in Arshavin and Cesc. Arsh against Wesley was a complete no-contest for the first 25 minutes of the game. And yet, they wouldn’t score. Why? Because it wouldn’t be beautiful to just ram the ball from the edge of the box and score a deflected goal. Noooo, they have to thread through the fine, final, fantastic pass and lift the ball gracefully over the keeper. Of course, in that process, all of our back four converged on the ball by then, or the ball fell for Song to shoot. Which, we all agree, isn’t in Arsenal’s interest at all. And so the game stayed 0-0 through an entertaining and explosive 30 minutes.

Por-tu-gaaaaaal

Is it just me or have we all noticed that Almunia has a problem with Portugese strikers? Last season it was Cristiano and his 40-yards of swerving which Almunia punched into this own net. Today, it was Nani after he left three Arsenal players for dead and lobbed a very slow, very floated ball across the Arsenal box. It was probably going to be cleared. It was probably going to be missed by Park, for remember, that before that point, his last goal still was from last season. But Almunia said ‘Never fear, I’m here’, and beautifully tipped the ball into his own net. As Martin said, it was almost unfair of Almunia to take that goal away from Nani, but I’m not complaining. Of course, the wonderful camera set-up at Emirates means that no one could really see how Nani left Clichy and Rosicky hugging each other as he ran into the box, and Nani was asked as much in the post-match interview. Was this the first time he’d done it in a match?

Apologies for the worst picture quality 😛

Heh. Yeah. I thiiink.. I try something, it happened. It was good. Ya…

Awright, that’s brilliant. Sheds a lot more light on what exactly happened, sure. And that’s not the only thing that Barclays hands out Man of the Match awards for. 37th minute, and in a mirror-image of last year’s (I keep going back there, I know) third goal, United broke from an Arsenal corner. Nani didn’t take off like Ronaldo however, and jogged patiently while waiting for Wazza to join up. Four Arsenal players streamed back, but the difference was, Rooney wanted the ball. And the goal. He got them both, 2-0 and sweeeeet.

Midfield? What midfield?

I tell you, in all honesty, I thought for the first 15 minutes that Fabregas was not playing. I missed the squad sheets and caught the match only from the 6th minute, and I did NOT think Cesc was on the pitch till some 20th minute when he beat Scholes for pace and finally got a ball through to Arshavin. Forget all Le Professor’s classes, that was the cue for 20+ years of managerial experience from Fergie to show and simply switch Scholes and Carrick for the attacking and holding roles. Freed up from Cesc, Scholes played almost alongside Rooney, and immediately United started camping more and more in Arsenal’s half. Fletcher was doubling up for all of the back four, with Evra practically a third central defender. The lack of a true winger has always showed in Arsenal’s game – with their forced necessity to play right through the middle. Nasri and Rosicky were not doing what Nani was, and thus it was that the famed Arsenal flow never really happened through their midfield. Was the match ‘physical’? Not at all. There were clean tackles all around, good old doubling-up and simple hurrying of the Arsenal midfield. The referee, for once, had a good game.

3-0 in 3-D

The above comment by a United man watching the match in it’s much-touted 3D avatar and conveyed faithfully by Martin to all the Sky viewers signaled that everyone realized the game was over then. Another fast break from us against an Arsenal side that was playing improbably high up the pitch. Very impressed with Ji Sun’s finish though, I definitely didn’t think he was going for it himself. But, he earned his week’s wages at that point, and earned United’s double over Arsenal. There were 15 nervy minutes at then end for us when we began to get sloppy, and we were rightly punished with a goal. Not to take away anything from Johnny and Wes for the night though, absolutely composed and completely on top of things. But, the sloppiness led to more nerves, and when Gallas rose to meet the ball with VDS well stranded in the 85th minute, all hearts were in the mouth. No worries though, the great central defended produced a wonderful defensive header to clear the ball out for a goal kick. Surely time for All’s Well that Ends Well.

One small step for Man(United)kind…

… a giant leap for Nani kind. His performances in the last couple of weeks have been inspiring. Consistency was always his problem, and 2 weeks is no measure of that. But for what he’s done/not done/been told to do/panned for not doing all season, he couldn’t have picked a better time to come up with a Man of the Match performance. Of course, he still missed the chance were good friend Almunia rolled the ball to him and said ‘Go ahead son, get yourself a goal, I took away your last one’, but that’s ok. For now. It won’t be ok if he does it at 1-1 at the 90th minute at the Bridge, but it’s ok for now. I’m not even going to talk about Rooney. The man carrying a world on his shoulders – United’s world. He got to 100 goals for United in the League, pipping Scholes to the mark, against the same team he scored his first for Everton as a 16-year old boy wonder. I was watching that game live as well, most strangely. His 100th wasn’t as spectacular, but then, he really doesn’t have to make people take notice anymore.

United’s last two games have really been, well, the United I’ve grown up watching. There were moments in the season that I couldn’t recognize them at all. Like at Craven Cottage. Or at the Bridge as well, where we were like Arsenal – all play and no goal. But against Shitty in midweek, and now against Gunners, United made all of us grin again. As wide as the day when Martin Tyler unforgettably went ‘Machedaaaaaaaaaaahh’. And it’s for making that grin happen, that we stick by United through the other days where they don’t.

Almunia and Clichy. I shall blame them forever.
I need to go and cry myself to sleep now. Looking forward to Arseblog and Maddy for some optimism as Arsenalist refused to even put up the highlights of the game.

It was really sad to see so many chances being created for Arsenal but we just could not finish it of.. Arshavin could have scored like 3 goals yesterday but it was just not going right. Almunia needs to be replaced by some good keeper asap and we need a clinical finisher in the absence of RVP. Walcott, Bentner are simply not getting the job done. Arsenal cannot give them something like 100 games to start performing to the level we expect from them.

hey cool post, and nani’s goal. i think it was just a one on one tackle and clichy n rosicky came too late for cover. still, a performance which showed chlesky aint all that ahead and why they should worry and lose matches due to that worry 😀

its a pity that rosickys play has been forgotten. he was easily the best arsenal player on the pitch, perhaps second best only to nani. he was every where and was part of a most things good. his was creatively brilliant. he was let down by his team mates. he did not deserve to be on the losing team. but thats just how it goes. happy that he is back and playing as well as he is.